Justin Upton Rips ESPN ‘Sunday Night Baseball’

In recent years, the advent of MLB.TV and the ability to watch whatever team they want whenever they want has led to more people embracing more games instead of just watching the national coverage as your only way to see teams outside of your local market. Last night’s Sunday Night nationally televised game featured the Rays and the Rangers.

The plays that Justin was talking about was BJ only advancing to third (and not scoring) on a double to right by Luke Scott. Upton held up when the ball was hit, because Jeff Keppinger (the runner on third base) ALSO held up. If Keppinger was running on the play, Upton could have gone as well. If Upton was running and the ball was caught, he definitely would have been thrown out attempting to return to secondby Nelson Cruz, who has a cannon for an arm.

The squeeze that Justin was referring to came in the eighth inning, with Evan Longoria on third and Upton at the plate. Upton showed a bunt and Longoria broke towards the plate. Upton pulled his bunt back, because the pitch he was supposed to bunt was a ball off the plate.

Odds are that if Upton tried to bunt it, he either would have completely whiffed and Longoria would have been thrown out anyway, or he would have bunted it foul and been in an 0-2 count. Regardless, the announcers going after Upton on the play was completely ill-conceived.

I really like how Justin Upton called our attention to two plays that would normally fly under the radar of the usual criticism of announcers. They went after BJ Upton on a pair of plays that quite frankly, the outcome was justified when you look at the bigger picture. We don’t look at little details like this enough, but when you do, it’s jarring at just how many times analysts can be off-base.